Pittsburgh Steelers rookie Chase Claypool is a big talent with an even bigger personality.
The Canadian wide receiver heads into his first NFL season looking to make an impression on the field, while also turning heads off it.
To that end, Claypool has joined with DAZN Canada to help introduce himself to his home nation. As one of the stars of "Rookie Diaries," the 22-year-old from Abbotsford, B.C., who starred at the University of Notre Dame before being selected 49th overall in the 2020 NFL Draft, takes viewers behind-the-scenes to have a look at the life of an NFL rookie.
In Wednesday's debut episode, "Getting To Know Chase Claypool," the youngster is joined by DAZN host Adnan Virk for a conversation about his family life in B.C., being a rookie in the middle of a global pandemic, and trying to shoot a vlog for the show despite being at the bottom of the ladder in the Steelers' locker room.
"I had it for a few days [to start training camp]," Claypool said of the camera he's using to document his life as a rookie for DAZN. "But I had to get comfortable with the guys before I started filming any of them. So I've been talking to JuJu [Smith-Schuster] and just kind of getting some ideas of what would be cool to get on camera. I'm planning on taking a day in the life of a rookie and just taking you guys through my day, and then maybe some off the field things — what I do after practice, how I recover, how I work out on the off-day. All those types of things."
Being selected in the second round of the NFL Draft is indication enough of what kind of an athlete Claypool is — he's the highest-drafted Canadian since 2011 — but the rookie revealed in Wednesday's episode that he excelled in basketball before choosing to focus solely on football.
Claypool said that the day he was scouted by Notre Dame coach Brian Kelly he put up 51 points in a high school basketball game.
"It was the day before I signed my NLI," Claypool explained. "I guess it was a good day to drop 51, because they were talking about it on Twitter after."
A Canadian through and through, Claypool considers himself a Toronto Raptors fan and listed Vince Carter as his all time favourite NBA player.
"I like all the Toronto players," Claypool said. "DeMar DeRozan, I like him a lot. Kyle Lowry, I watch him now, obviously. And then — I watch Kawhi [Leonard] since he brought us a championship. Gotta respect game."
Watch "Getting To Know Chase Claypool" full episodes of "Rookie Diaries" exclusively on DAZN. Click here to sign up for a free trial.